Anthropology

Anthropology invites you to learn more about other ways of life, and its study gives you a framework for looking critically at your own. A look at life in a hunting band or a Himalayan village helps bring life in our cities into focus. Looking in depth at the challenges facing indigenous and Third World peoples can help you become a better world citizen. Cultural anthropology investigates the lore and logic of other cultures.‌‌

Anthropology means not only looking out at other cultures, but looking back at our origins and what it means to be human. What needs, urges and patterns have been built into us? How and why did we change from being scavengers to hunter-gatherers to farmers to “city-zens”? Can we create a global village or are we driving to a world-long strip mall interrupted by occasional theme parks and game reserves? Physical anthropologists and archaeologists join cultural anthropologists in answering these questions.

Special Topics Courses in Anthropology

‌Trash Talk: The Anthropology of 'Dirt' and Disposal

Topics of ANTH 403E, will include areas such as: waste management, urban slums,cultures of disposability, 'diseased' and migrant populations, modern ruination, post-apocalyptic imagery, and witchcraft.